


The Scene of the Crime

by ProHeroMidoriyaShouto



Series: BNHA BUT B99 [1]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: DO NOT POST TO ANOTHER SITE OR APP, F/F, Gen, M/M, Staged Crime Scene, descriptions of blood and murder per b99 canon, feat shindo yo as franco mccoy, manga spoilers for the raid arc and probably other stuff, ships mentioned but not the focus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21869827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProHeroMidoriyaShouto/pseuds/ProHeroMidoriyaShouto
Summary: The U.A. teachers introduce a new practice to acclimate hero students to the horrors they might witness out in the field. Set in pairs, the students must work to solve a crime in an alotted amount of time or risk losing their provisional licenses. Ochako wants to prove that she can stand toe-to-toe with the top students in class after her failure to do more and save Nighteye during the Raid Arc. Shouto wants to show that he's caught up to his peers and is just as capable of being calm and rational as the rest of them. Together they'll prove their worth or lose their first chance at greatness.
Relationships: Hagakure Tooru/Jirou Kyouka, Todoroki Shouto & Uraraka Ochako, iichako - Relationship, tododeku, todoriya - Relationship
Series: BNHA BUT B99 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1575565
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	The Scene of the Crime

**Author's Note:**

> First fic of my BNHA x B99 projects for the bang! An attempt at writing Ochako and ptsd while trying to make it fun albeit this is not exacly a cheery start so my bad. I had something sillier but didn't wind up liking it so that'll be next chapter really. I chose this because few fics really focus on Ochako around the time of this manga arc so I wanted to give it a go. 
> 
> My partner for this fic was Bea! Art is linked to my tumblr post about the fic so be sure to go and check it out!

Winter descends upon Musutafu like a ghostly curtain, an unsettling silence over the campus court yards and city streets after their stressful summer and arduous autumn.

At least, Ochako thinks so. The remaining patchworks of leaves beneath her shoes are uneven tides that seem to push and pull her from class to training grounds to the dorms only to set her ashore with water-logged limbs on uneven ground.

The halls are filled with the scent of warm red bean pastries and hot mint tea, giggling over hands clasped in long sleeves and low voices pouring over homework assignments ahead of incoming exams. It’s discomfiting in a way she thought herself desensitized to after their action packed first semester—the normalcy of their day-to-day lives.

Nighteye’s death was nearly a month ago, and the service a quiet affair soon afterwards. Izuku and Mirio had been left without a mentor, and the world had lost a hero—All Might’s only sidekick! —and yet. They’ve moved on. Izuku, Mirio, All Might, the world. New mentors, internships, work and chores and laughter and newfound hope.

It’s… terrifying. A hero dies and the world keeps turning, the sun rises that morning and the people that knew them best put them aside, for better or for worse. Do they matter at all?

If Ochako drops out of the hero course, will it matter at all?

Her friends would protest, try to pull her back in, and she does need to take care of her parents… but if her efforts are for naught then surely stopping altogether would be inconsequential.

Such reflections are unlike her, unsuited to her usual optimistic view, but with each passing day she is more and more aware of the gap between her abilities and that of her friends.

During the Raid operation, it seemed as though Red Riot and Deku and all the other heroes were pushed and pushed and _pushed _and yet they overcame, time and time again to defeat their opponents and come to each other’s aid while her team struggled with a handful of relatively weak villains above ground in broad daylight.

Objectively, Ochako knows that nobody could have predicted the exact opponents they’d face or how the villains would have behaved. It was entirely possible that the executives and Chisaki could have tried to run away from the onset, in which case they’d had met Ryukyu’s team. If Ryukyu had let the interns take on more responsibility, had been willing to take the risk of betting on them, the villains might’ve been defeated sooner. Or the interns would have been killed—precisely why Ryukyu kept them on such a tight leash.

Her mentor had put their lives at higher priority than defeating the villains, which Ochako can understand and is grateful for, really. But she can’t help but feel as though there was more she could have done. If only she’d had more combat prowess, harder hitting moves… the ability to instill faith in her comrades through sheer presence. Maybe then Ryukyu would have let them fight harder on the front line. Every minute, every second was precious, was the difference between life and death.

If she’d been there, could she have saved Nighteye from that fatal blow? Aizawa-sensei says it’s no use speculating over ‘what-ifs’ and ‘shoulda-woulda-coulda’ because all it does is tear you apart and heroes need to develop a thicker skin, but try as she might, Ochako can’t put it aside. The small lingering doubts always come back, whispering in the night before she drifts off to sleep, whenever she’s alone and left with her thoughts.

She’s envious of her classmates.

With their powerful quirks, of course they know Nighteye’s death wasn’t their fault. They had truly embodied _Plus Ultra_ during the raid, unlike Ochako, who fell flat on her face when her friend was in danger and let Nighteye stop her from taking him to the ambulance to watch the fight instead.

The door to the classroom looms ahead, and Ochako greets students from 1-B as they walk past, hoping her smile doesn’t look as paper thin as it feels, and that the even lines are not smudged from tears. Her friends are inside—Tenya’s voice carries—and she knows they’ll notice something is off if she acts like nothing is wrong. It’s just her luck that everyone she knows is so perceptive to the feelings of others.

Ochako knows that relying on others to do what you can’t is not weakness. But standing up with her own power doesn’t feel like strength _either_-

Ah.

Ochako slaps her cheeks with stunning force. She grasps at the pain like a lifeline and shakes her head vigorously. This isn’t like her! She’s self-aware enough to know that she’s spiraling _again_, and that she has to break out of her funk if she wants to do well in class.

She’s not over it, but she has to believe Aizawa when he says it’s okay to move forward. That it’s a balancing act- to pursue your dreams and remain standing upright. 

Ochako wants more than anything to be a hero. She has to process things in her own time and keep walking toward the finish line without fear of the setbacks. She isn’t strong like Izuku or Kirishima or Tsu, but their strength doesn’t diminish her own just because it’s a different kind of strength. She’s young and still learning. She has time to improve.

The qualities she envies in others can just as easily become her own if only she strive toward that goal. Izuku has been the object of her admiration since before they even made it into U.A. His work ethic despite a powerful quirk to fall back on, how much thought he puts into each move and every plan—she can have that too. Then maybe others will be able to rely on her! She just has to make the effort!

Ochako takes several deep breaths to center herself and tries not to worry about the state of her hair or the redness in her eyes. A few love taps to her cheeks bring some color into them—and the ghost of her previous slap makes her feel absolutely foolish—and she slams the door open with far more gusto than the moment warrants, but it’s a reflection of how she feels so she doesn’t care. She’s earned her place in this classroom. She deserves to be here. She’ll jump whatever hurdle Aizawa-sensei puts in front of her today! She just has to have faith in her own abilities.

Which is easier said than done.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

“There’s been a change of plan.” Aizawa tells his class. “Recent events have led the heroics industry to re-evaluate the state of student hero licenses, and as a result, the criteria to earn one has changed.” It would be simple to place the blame on Sir Nighteye’s death—relatively high profile after the fact, not to mention the man’s connection to the former number one hero—for the growing critique of the Japan’s heroics education system, but he knows the situation in Japan is worse than that.

“What does this mean for us?” Asui asks. “We just received our licenses.”

All of three hours of sleep in the last week means his body aches with glaring persistence, the shadows under his eyes are especially pronounced and his spine might as well be a loose stack of stones held together by sheer determination. It’s a wonder he can still manage human language.

“The gist of it is that all hero licenses held by Second-year students and below are effectively in contention. Combat potential alone is no longer enough to qualify for a license. First- and Second-year students must also pass psychological and procedural exams to be approved for hero work. Students who already possess licenses are required to complete their exams retroactively, and must pass, before they may resume internships of any kind. Those that fail will have their licenses revoked until next year when they can try again.”

“That’s bullshit!”

“I trained my ass off for this thing!”

“But that’s so unfair!”

His right eye twitches like an insect is fluttering under his skin trying to break free and fly away, and it takes more control than he knows is reasonable to keep from walking over and boxing their ears in for shrieking so early in the goddamn day.

Aizawa activates his quirk and nips rising protests in the bud so he can continue uninterrupted. Teenagers really are the worst sort of people. “Hero licenses are not meant to be awarded based on quotas or diploma-pushing tactics. It’s hard work both physically and mentally, and young heroes are paying the price for it already. Sending you into dangerous situations when you haven’t been adequately prepared just to free up veteran pros for other missions only increases the likelihood of injury or death.”

He sighs, resigned. “It’s not the fault of students, but this has already gone into effect so don’t bother whining to me about the inconvenience. The test you’ll be undergoing will place two-man teams in mock-crime scenarios meant to make you feel uncomfortable and out of your depth. You pass by adapting to the circumstances as best you can and solving the crime without breaking down or giving the proctors signs that you’re incapable of handling the subject matter appropriately.” Aizawa stares down the room to be certain his words are being taken in. “If you fail or give up, you will forfeit your license until next year, and all current internships are postponed until you’ve passed this assessment.”

They’ve really grown used to his glares over the course of their first semester because murmuring begins before he’s even stopped talking. The class is roughly split between the Raid-interns and their close friends, and those who have yet to experience death firsthand. They’re a strong bunch and came out for the better after all their life-or-death experiences, but they’re still naïve about some things.

The kids who met Nighteye and watched him bleed out, and die shortly after, are unusually somber and rightly so. Sir Nighteye’s death is not the reason for scrutiny of heroics education, but it is the catalyst for implementation of necessary reforms though the students were not at fault. Aizawa’s class needs licenses so they can defend themselves when the League of Villains targets them, and U.A. has managed to acquire special exceptions for its First- and Second- year students, but they don’t need to know that.

1-A’s greatest short-coming is their collective and individual inexperience. It’s not even their second term and they’ve already been thrown into the field out of necessity. Those that fail will still hold their provisional license but will not be allowed to intern off-campus. It will allow them to fight villains when the time comes though so that’s all Aizawa can ask. These tests will be a crash course of two years’ worth of material they need to truly succeed at this point in time.

It’s far from what they want to hear, but the issues they possess as individuals are glaring when considered on their own. From a lack of emotional intelligence, to arrogance, impatience, immaturity, even poor penmanship. The list of areas in which to improve are endless but not at all surprising for ones so young.

It’s been a long week and an even longer work week so he just doesn’t have the energy to field twenty kids’ concerns over an exam covering what should be the minimal requirement for all would-be heroes. He scarcely remembers to hand out the guidelines for the tests and takes his leave so Present Mic can begin their English lesson, and marches in the vague direction of the teacher’s lounge to take a prolonged nap on the couch. Their tests will be doing hero students a favor by rounding out their education and will only present difficulty due to the kids’ lack of knowledge on the subject of their own test.

They will succeed or discover the full breadth of their failings and suffer the consequences, simple as that. Nothing he can do to help them until then, and whatever the outcome, he’ll be ready.


End file.
